Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

R & D: GOP Senators Push Extended Tax Credit

Senate GOP leaders yesterday called on President Clinton to back a 10-year extension of the research and development tax credit that is folded into the $792 billion tax cut bill that Clinton has vowed to veto, CongressDaily/A.M. reports. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS), joined by Banking Chair Phil Gramm (R-TX), Armed Services Chair John Warner (R-VA), and Sens. Robert Bennett (R-UT), Bill Frist (R-TN), Slade Gorton (R- WA), Connie Mack (R-FL) and Spencer Abraham (R-MI), also released a letter they and other Senate Republican High Technology Task Force members sent Clinton this week. Currently, the tax break must be renewed each year. "No company can plan and invest for the long term with a policy that changes ... every 12 months," they wrote (Koffler, 8/4). "One of the things we must do when we come out of the tax relief conference is to make sure that we have the R&D tax credit permanently, or at least of the 10 years of the tax bill," Frist said (Vanderkam, Washington Times, 8/4).

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